Why enterprise architects will need to focus on innovation in the coming years

Wayne Filin-Matthews, chief enterprise architect at Dell Technologies, dives into his extensive past in the enterprise architecture (EA) space and shares some of his biggest successes to date. Filin-Matthews shares his thoughts on the future of the enterprise architecture space and gives a sneak peek into the session he will present at PEX Live: Enterprise Architecture 2022, taking place online on 5 – 6 April 2022.

Filin-Matthews has over 32 years in the IT industry, in roles such as architect role owner at Microsoft, head of global architecture at HSBC and now chief enterprise architect at Dell Technologies. 

PEX Network: Would you like to share any success stories you have experienced? 

Wayne Filin-Matthews: I am a chartered Fellow with the British Computer Society as well as a double distinguished architect with the Open Group, at the level of Open Certified Architect Level 3.

If an EA initiative has been done over the last 32 years, I have lived it. There were so many wins over those decades, from award-winning payment solutions for the financial services industry to managing effective teams of over 100 EAs globally, across multiple geographies and disperse organizations.

PEX Network: What is your top advice for organizations looking to build a solid enterprise architecture? 

WFM: Bringing the EA functional teams closer to the line of business decision-makers is a must. In a digital development, security and operations landscape, EA need to be part of the planning events and the traditional model that sees EA functions as being external to the technology teams no longer works.

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PEX Network: What are the most critical technologies associated with enterprise architecture, and how do they help with its establishment?

WFM: Establishing an EA function is really not about the technologies, but more around linkage between the organizational motivations, courses of action, capabilities, value streams and resources.

Once that is understood and mapped out, then you can begin to implement the supporting technologies that help to make EA seamless, and there are many that can be chosen.

PEX Network: What key developments do you see happening in the EA space over the next couple of years? 

WFM: An EA is a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation of an organization. An EA intends to determine how an enterprise can most efficiently achieve its current and future objectives.

This has been updated recently and I fully support and agree that EA has shifted from focusing not only on business technology strategy but now also on how EAs can identify and continuously innovate, under proper management, to help exploit technology investments. This requires a new muscle to be developed for most EA practices globally.

Filin-Matthews will discuss how to think like an EA in the modern digital era and how to move that mind-set from the traditional T-BAR EA to a capital E model. To hear Filin-Matthews discuss these topics in more detail, register for PEX Live: Enterprise Architecture 2022.